Land Dispute

The Mashantucket Pequot Indians have won the latest battle in a prolonged land dispute that has shaped the sometimes antagonistic relationship between the tribe, its neighboring towns and the state. In a decision released Monday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt was right in 1995 when he granted a request by the Mashantuckets to expand their eastern Connecticut reservation. The tribe has the right to annex land outside the reservation boundaries Congress set forth when it settled land claims and granted the tribe federal recognition, the three-court panel said, overturning a 1998 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Robert N. Chatigny.

A long-running dispute between a local man and the town over whether he can keep goats on his property is expected to come to a head at a public hearing next week. The town ordered Daniel True last week to get the goats off his property, about half an acre at 991 Prospect St. It was the third time that the town had ordered True to get rid of his goats, the first in 2003, said Frank Vinci, the town's zoning enforcement officer. The two previous times, the goats disappeared from the property for a while, but at some point later they returned, Vinci said.

The Connecticut Supreme Court is expected to rule soon in a long-standing dispute between two property owners on Talcott Mountain that has consumed thousands of dollars in legal fees and occasioned two trials and two appeals to the state's highest court. The fight has pitted Michael Konover, a prominent developer, against Talcott Mountain Science Center for Student Involvement. The issue involves the center's claim that it has the right to access all its land at the end of Montevideo Road, where Konover owns 96 acres and has built a nine-room house.

Q: How did Connecticut acquire and dispose of New Connecticut (the Western Reserve) in Ohio and Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania? R.S., Canton. A: In 1662, King Charles II of England granted the Connecticut Plantation land bounded east by the Narragansett River and Bay, south by the Atlantic Ocean, north by the Massachusetts Plantation and west by the "great sea south" (Pacific Ocean). The land cut through Pennsylvania and included land in Ohio. In 1681, King Charles granted the same Pennsylvania land to William Penn.

Selectmen postponed action Tuesday on a proposal to settle the boundary line between David Wilson's property and town-owned land. "The town has title to the subject property," Town Attorney Bruno Morasutti said in a letter to selectmen this week. But he cautioned that two deeds exist for portions of the property. "We don't know if they're two for the same property or for different property, or what," Selectman William Mackey said at the regular selectmen's meeting Tuesday.

On the first day of trial in a torturous land dispute, Stafford First Selectman John E. Julian took the witness stand Wednesday, defending his family's claim to a roughly 60-acre parcel in Ellington near the Stafford line. Julian, as the representative for his family, was sued in September by Helen C. and Peter Roman, both of Stafford, who have accused the eight-term selectman of stealing the wooded plot near Tolland Avenue. Also in the eight-count lawsuit is an accusation that the battle over the property has given Peter Roman heart troubles, to the point of requiring heart surgery.

What was expected to be a last-ditch attempt at pleasing both sides in the emotionally charged dispute between the Bugryn family and the city never materialized when the council met Tuesday. The city is reaching the end of a years-long struggle to purchase the family's 30-acre parcel on Middle Street. The city recently acquired the property through eminent domain and has evicted the elderly Bugryn family members who live in a house on that land. They must move by July 10. A three-judge panel is in the process of deciding how much the city must pay them for the land.

When "Snow Falling on Cedars" was released to lukewarm reviews in 1999, I was as disappointed as any fan of David Guterson's novel. And I didn't bother to go see it. But watching the DVD recently was a revelation. This is a beautiful, poignant rendering of the book, and if some viewers find it a trifle slow, that's probably because it takes after the book, which also proceeds at a leisurely pace. The story's core is a post-World War II trial in Washington state of a Japanese American accused of murdering someone in a land dispute.

The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation can sue a rival Indian faction over a land dispute on the tribe's Kent reservation, the state Supreme Court has ruled. The two factions ended up in court after the rival Schaghticoke Indian Tribe began clearing trees from land on the reservation in 2001 and the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation sued. Both groups are seeking formal recognition as Indian tribes from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. Federally recognized tribes can negotiate to open casinos in Connecticut.

Council Chairman Andrew Meade wants to talk with his colleagues around the state before making a decision on whether to give another town $1,000 to fight the Mashantucket Pequot Indians in a land annexation battle. The North Stonington Board of Finance has asked 166 municipalities in the state to donate $1,000 each to help pay for its legal battle. Letters were mailed to every municipality in the state, except Ledyard and Preston, which along with North Stonington are involved in the land dispute with the Pequots.

The Amston Lake Volunteer Fire Co. firehouse, the ownership of which had come into dispute, is now back under the control of the department's members from 1994, the year before the department ceased active service. Larry Zimmerman, who was listed as president of the fire company from 1995 until 2004, said he relinquished his position Friday because the debate over ownership of the old firehouse became too heated. "There's too many people sharp-shooting at me from different directions," Zimmerman said.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it will take up the appeal by residents of New London's Fort Trumbull peninsula whose homes are being taken by city officials to make way for private development projects. The Connecticut case will mark the high court's first significant review in 50 years of the use of eminent domain -- the government's power to seize private property for public use -- and its first such analysis in the context of private redevelopment. The state Supreme Court in March unanimously agreed that increasing employment and tax revenues in an economically distressed community such as New London could justify the use of eminent domain.

If the YMCA won't sell back a piece of land off deKoven Drive that the city covets for public parking, city officials are prepared to force the sale by using the power of eminent domain. That stance ups the ante in a dispute between the city and the Y, which bought the land from the city redevelopment agency in 1979. Tonight, the common council is being asked to empower Mayor Domenique Thornton to acquire the land if the two sides can't agree on a price. The request from the city planning office cites the downtown parking shortage as justification.

Problems with helicopter landings at Rockville General Hospital must be addressed. But moving the helipad to a location offsite may not be the ideal solution. The hospital has spent several hundred thousand dollars to build the new landing area on the site of its expansion -- at the request of emergency planning officials. To ask the organization to change direction now and spend more money does not promote good town-hospital relations. With the hospital expansion, the planning and zoning commission approved the landing site.

The family-owned land on which the city plans to build an industrial park is worth $1.76 million, according to a judicial panel's ruling made public Tuesday. The value that three Hartford court judges assigned to the Bugryn family's 30 acres off Middle Street is more than the $1.2 million to $1.5 million that city appraisers estimated. But it's less than the $1.85 million to $2 million the city offered before the family went to court to fight the city's taking of the property by eminent domain in February 2000.

The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation can sue a rival Indian faction over a land dispute on the tribe's Kent reservation, the state Supreme Court has ruled. The two factions ended up in court after the rival Schaghticoke Indian Tribe began clearing trees from land on the reservation in 2001 and the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation sued. Both groups are seeking formal recognition as Indian tribes from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. Federally recognized tribes can negotiate to open casinos in Connecticut.

Mashantucket Pequot tribal lawyer Patrice Kunesh expressed hope Tuesday that a federal court ruling favoring the tribe in a long-running land dispute could lead to settlement talks with neighboring towns and the state. The Tribal Council followed up with a statement of its own, saying it "would greatly embrace the opportunity for meaningful discussions." But the scars from the dispute run deep. "I think there's so many unanswered questions that we're going to have to pursue getting the questions answered first before we look to that option," North Stonington First Selectman Nicholas Mullane said Tuesday.

Q: How did Connecticut acquire and dispose of New Connecticut (the Western Reserve) in Ohio and Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania? R.S., Canton. A: In 1662, King Charles II of England granted the Connecticut Plantation land bounded east by the Narragansett River and Bay, south by the Atlantic Ocean, north by the Massachusetts Plantation and west by the "great sea south" (Pacific Ocean). The land cut through Pennsylvania and included land in Ohio. In 1681, King Charles granted the same Pennsylvania land to William Penn.

What was expected to be a last-ditch attempt at pleasing both sides in the emotionally charged dispute between the Bugryn family and the city never materialized when the council met Tuesday. The city is reaching the end of a years-long struggle to purchase the family's 30-acre parcel on Middle Street. The city recently acquired the property through eminent domain and has evicted the elderly Bugryn family members who live in a house on that land. They must move by July 10. A three-judge panel is in the process of deciding how much the city must pay them for the land.

Since the 1960s, Augustus Simmons has passionately and defiantly maintained that he owns a 6-acre tract of land abutting Bradley International Airport and that the state has been using it without paying him for the privilege. That passion and a March 14 confrontation with an Army National Guard patrol and later with state troopers cost the 83-year-old East Hartford resident another year in jail Tuesday. After a one-day trial in front of a judge in Enfield, Simmons was convicted of breach of peace, interfering with an officer and disorderly conduct.